Walter Zerlett-Olfenius (7 April 1897 – 18 April 1975) was a German screenwriter, who worked on films for UFA (Universum Film AG), from 1936 until 1945. His most notable project was the 1943 Nazi film about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The film cost four million Reichsmarks (equivalent to 16 million € 2021).
Theodor Habicht (4 April 1898 – 31 January 1944) was a leading political figure in Nazi Germany. He played a leading role in the Austrian Nazi Party. During World War II, he was involved in the administration of Nazi-occupied Norway until his dismissal by Adolf Hitler. He later served in the Wehrmacht and was killed in action on the Eastern Front at Nevel in 1944.
Henning Schönfeld (19 May 1894 – 11 March 1958) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 2nd Panzer Division. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Eberhard von Kurowski (10 September 1895 – 11 September 1957) was a German general (Generalleutnant) in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Kurowski surrendered to the Red Army in the course of the Soviet 1944 Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive. Convicted as a war criminal in the Soviet Union, he was held until 1955.
Wolfgang von Kluge (5 May 1892 – 30 October 1976) served in both world wars. He rose to the rank of Generalleutnant in the Wehrmacht by 1943, commanding several divisions. He was commander of "Fortress Dunkirk" between July and September 1944. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.
He was the younger brother of Gunther von Kluge (1882-1944).
Heinrich Meyer-Buerdorf (13 December 1888 – 1 May 1971) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 131st Infantry Division. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Georg von Sodenstern (15 November 1889 – 20 July 1955) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the 19th Army. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.
It has been indicated von Sodenstern was part of a group, including Erwin von Witzleben, who proposed a coup against Adolf Hitler in 1937.
Artur Mahraun (30 December 1890 – 29 March 1950) was the founder and leader of the Young German Order (Jungdeutscher Orden or Jungdo) and an early contender for the leadership of the right-wing youth in Weimar Germany.Born the son of a privy councillor in Kassel, Mahraun became a career soldier with the Prussian Army when he enlisted in the Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 83 in 1908. He served with distinction on the Eastern Front during First World War.Like many of his contemporaries he became involved in Freikorps activity after the Armistice, forming his own group, the Offizierkompagnie Kassel in January 1919. The group was restructured in May 1920 when the Jungdo was adopted and by 1921 Mahraun could call on 70,000 followers. A strong believer in law and order, he rejected revolutionary activity and instead called for Germany to reconcile with France and rebuild her prestige through Franco-German co-operation. At its peak Mahraun's movement, which sought a return to the Wandervogel spirit, could call on as many as 300,000 followers. After meeting Adolf Hitler during the Beer Hall Putsch he quickly became a critic of the Nazi leader.Mahraun entered the political arena in 1928 when he formed the People's National Reich Association (Völksnationale Reichsvereiningung) as an electoral arm of his movement, merging it with the German Democratic Party to form the German State Party in 1930. However the move was not a success as the new party performed very poorly at election. Mahraun's party and Jungdo were banned in 1933 and he was for a time imprisoned by the Gestapo.He was briefly associated with a group called the Nachbarschafts-Bewegung after the war until his death in Gütersloh in 1950.
Friedrich Weber, Dr. (30 January 1892 – 19 July 1955) was an instructor in veterinary medicine at the University of Munich. In World War I he served in the Royal Bavarian 1st Heavy Cavalry Regiment "Prince Karl of Bavaria". He was the leader of the Oberland League and ranked alongside Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff, Ernst Röhm and Hermann Kriebel as one of the chief conspirators of the Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923. He was convicted along with Hitler in 1924 but continued to head the Oberland League until 1929.
After his release from prison, he set up a private vet practice in Munich and continued close contact with Hitler being given a lucrative position in Berlin after Hitler's accession to power in 1933. He became an army vet late in World War II. After the war, he was interned by U.S. occupation authorities and heavily fined for war profiteering, but continued to practise veterinary medicine, eventually dying in reduced circumstances in 1955.
Hans Leybold (2 April 1892 – 8 September 1914) was a German expressionist poet, whose small body of work was a major inspiration behind much of the Dada movement, in particular the works of his close friend Hugo Ball. Although Leybold died two years before the emergence of Dada, his absurdist writings and poems represent an important stage in the development of expressionist movement in Germany.
Born into a middle-class family in Frankfurt am Main, Leybold was raised in Hamburg where he completed his schooling in 1911 and joined the German Army. In his compulsory year of conscription he impressed his superior officers so much he was offered a commission and embarked on a military career. Taking a leave of absence to attend university, Leybold traveled to Munich to study German literature and whilst there he fell in with the crowd of German poets and authors who would head the Dada movement post-war. These figures included Richard Huelsenbeck, Emmy Hennings, Klabund, Johannes R. Becher, Franz Jung and most importantly of all his particular friend Hugo Ball. It was Ball who interested Leybold in the expressionist movement and soon the two of them were soon producing poetry together under the pseudonym Ha Hu Baley. In the company of these authors, Leybold experimented wildly with technique and imagery in his poetry, seeking both to develop his skills and in the process deconstruct poetry itself, heavily influenced by Alfred Kerr and Friedrich Nietzsche. In consequence of his literary experimentation, his studies went neglected and he began to edit and contribute to expressionist magazines, such as Die Aktion and his own work, the short lived magazine Revolution, in which he and his colleagues issued their literary manifesto.
"Protect yourself against responsibilities! Hit out: against old household rubbish! And if some valuable piece gets torn up in the process: what does it matter? You respected people! You well-polished ones! You bigwigs! We ought to stick our tongues out at you! Boys, you'll say. Old men! we'll reply"
In August 1914 the First World War erupted and Leybold was immediately called up as an active reservist. Less than a month later, Leybold was seriously wounded during operations near Namur and was evacuated to a casualty clearing hospital. He recovered rapidly from his wound but on 8 September, the night he returned to his regiment, he committed suicide by gunshot to the head. His death was never fully explained, although a rumour persisted that he had syphilis and had given up on survival following his wound. His works were collected together many years after his death, as he never had a book published independently, and he is now recognised as an important influence both on Dadism and German expressionism itself.